1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to practice golf clubs, specifically to a club which makes possible the visualization of: the arcuate path of travel of the club; the location and orientation of the club face at impact; and its speed. This new golf practice club utilizes strobing lights mounted on the top of of the club highlighting its perimeter (or a portion of its perimeter such as the face). During the golf swing, the lights turn on and off rapidly and are seen as a series of closely spaced images which seem to hang in the air briefly, apparently because of the persistence of images on the human retina.
2. Discussion of Prior Art
One problem in learning or teaching the golf swing is that the moving club is seen only as a blur due to the limitations of human sight. A golf club may average 108 mph in the impact area, with the ball remaining on the club face for only 5 msec. The teacher or student is forced to make assumptions about the golf swing based upon the reaction of the golf ball itself. If the golfer is practicing without actually hitting balls, there is even less feedback available.
The most important parameters of the golf swing are:
1) the angle of the club face at impact (open, square, or closed); PA0 2) the arcuate path of travel of the club during impact (inside-out, outside-in, or on-line); PA0 3) the speed of the club at impact; the location of the impact on the club face (toward the heel or toe, or centered). PA0 a) yields information about the club face angle during the swing, especially in the impact zone; PA0 b) yields information about the arcuate path of travel of the club throughout the swing; PA0 c) shows the site of impact on the club face, whether it be centered or toward the heel or toe of the club; PA0 d) yields information about the speed of the club head; PA0 e) is portable and self-contained, requiring no additional apparatus, wiring, or chemicals; PA0 f) is easy to use, requiring no mental gymnastics or calculations to achieve diagnostic value; PA0 g) is similar in weighty balance, and appe&rh-nce to a real golf club; indeed, with proper engineering for shock-proofing of its electronics, this practice golf club could be used in real play.
If these parameters are less than nominal during the golf swing, the ball may begin its flight in the wrong direction with a possible sidespin. For example, a "slice" may result from an open club face and/or an outside-in swing path. Any device which provides feedback about the above parameters would be of benefit.
There have been previous attempts to use lights (non-strobing) to help visualize the golf swing, such as U.S. Pat. No. 3,820,795 issued to David L. Taylor on Jun. 28, 1974. His idea was the mounting of a light source to the club hosel, which serves as an indicator of the arcuate path of travel of the club. While it seems to do this well, it does not yield any information about the club face angle or speed.
Another golf practice club with lights was submitted by John R. Brandell, U.S. Pat. No. 3,753,9564, on Aug. 21, 1973. His approach uses two lights (non-strobing) mounted on top of the club, one toward the front and the other toward the rear. If the lights overlap perfectly during a swing which is neither inside-out or outside-in, then the club face alignment must be perfect. Alternatively, the lights may also overlap if the club face is not square for a swing which has an improper arcuate path (for example, an open face with an inside-out swing). This interesting approach yields information about both the swing path and club face angle, but it requires the user to analyze the light patterns to get that feedback. The club face angle can only be inferred after determining which light is proximal and which is distal, while factoring in the effect of the seen arcuate path of travel.
Yet another approach was taken by Eugene N. Worrell with U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,649,028 and 3,649,029 dated Mar. 14, 1972. He applied luminescent colored stripes to the top of the club, running parallel to the path of the swing. If the stripes appeared blurred during the swing, they must have been overlapping due to a club face angle error. As with Brandell's approach, the user must strain to get feedbacks not to mention the problems of using an ultraviolet light and gauzelike material impregnated with luminescent chemical.
Each of these previous approaches was essentially an attempt to illuminate the blur of a swinging golf club, which makes more visible the arcutate path of travel of the club. The latter two approaches additionally tried to inject some information into that blur so that the user could extrapolate and make an inference about the club face angle.